StartConsole for CFOs

As CFO, StartConsole gives you visibility into the financial health of every initiative in the portfolio — budget allocations, actual spend, expected value, and the gate approvals where financial scrutiny matters most.

Pages you will use most

Budget tab (per initiative) — Every initiative has a Budget tab showing allocated budget, actuals to date, and variance. This is the primary place to check whether an initiative is tracking within its financial envelope.

Portfolio view (filtered by budget variance) — Sort the Portfolio view by budget variance to surface the initiatives furthest from their budget targets. This gives you a fast scan of financial health across the full portfolio without opening each initiative individually.

Gate reviews — Gate submissions that include a budget request or financial impact require your input. The Gates section shows pending submissions awaiting financial review.

Executive briefing export — The budget overview section of the briefing export gives you a consolidated view of allocated vs actual spend across all active initiatives, suitable for board reporting.

Key actions by cadence

Weekly: Check the Signals page filtered to the Budget category. Budget overrun signals flag initiatives that have exceeded or are approaching their allocation. Review the owner and recommended action for each flag.

Quarterly: Run the executive briefing export with the Budget Overview section selected. Use this as the basis for the quarterly financial portfolio review. Compare expected value to actual spend to assess return on initiative investment.

At gate reviews: Review the budget section of each gate submission before approving or returning it. Check whether the requested budget aligns with the expected value and delivery track record of the initiative.

Notifications you will receive

• Budget overrun signals — when an initiative's actual spend exceeds its allocated budget, a notification is sent to relevant reviewers including finance stakeholders
• Gate submissions — when a new gate submission is made on a major initiative, you receive a notification to review and approve